The View From Breast Pocket Mountain: A Memoir

by Karen Hill Anton

CROSSING BORDERS AND CULTURES, CREATING HOME

The View From Breast Pocket Mountain is a unique and previously untold story, a treasure trove of experiences crossing borders and cultures, creating a life, and finding contentment in a far-off country.

To those who’ve ever wondered what their lives would be if they’d taken that road without a map, this is the book you need to read. The View From Breast Pocket Mountain gives us a glimpse of a life not designed or even imagined.

As a motherless teenager raised by a caring albeit strict father, we see Anton’s developing awareness of the world beyond the boundaries of her New York City neighborhood before she goes on to live in a castle in 1960s Denmark and a cabin in 1970s Vermont. With a burning curiosity and vision of a life as yet unformed, she travels overland to Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, and finally to the place she’ll come to call home, Japan.

This memoir is filled with unexpected encounters with the very famous and those unknown and unnamed. On a journey through marriage and motherhood, love, laughter, tragedy and hope, we follow along as Anton makes her way through a life unplanned but well-lived. The View From Breast Pocket Mountain is a story for our time, reminding the reader of our interconnectedness, our shared humanity.

Genres: Memoir, Japan, Travel, Nonfiction, Asia

296 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2020

About the author

Karen Hill Anton is the author of the widely acclaimed and multiple award-winning memoir THE VIEW FROM BREAST POCKET MOUNTAIN. For 15 years she wrote the columns “Crossing Cultures” for the Japan Times and “Another Look” for the Japanese daily Chunichi Shimbun. Her writing appears in various collections, including 'A Passion for Japan' and The 'Broken Bridge: Fiction from Expatriates in Literary Japan'. She lectures internationally on her experience of cross-cultural adaptation and raising four bilingual, bicultural children. Originally from New York City, Karen has achieved second-degree mastery in Japanese calligraphy, and has made her home with her husband William Anton in the rural province of Shizuoka, Japan, since 1975.

Reviews

[Suzanne · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a long-term (over 30 years) resident of Japan, I have been familiar with Karen Hill Anton's work for many years. I remember reading her columns in the JAPAN TIMES about life as a foreign mother in rural Japan when I was a newbie myself. At the time, I was sufficiently impressed to learn that she had been a sub leader in her community's Kodomo no Kai. Later, I invited her to contribute a story to my anthology of writing by expatriates in Japan, and learned a little more about her. Now, having read her biography, I am even more impressed by her hard work and perseverance in the days before WiFi, not to mention her intrepid adventuring and ground-breaking achievements. I was also unaware of the unthinkable personal tragedies and deep sorrows that her family has endured.

Anton grew up in New York City, one of three children raised solely by an African-American father. (Her mother was institutionalized due to mental illness.) She studied dance with Martha Graham, modeled for the pages of LOOK magazine at a time when African-American models were few and far between, and copy-edited for Joseph Heller. Later, she traveled to Europe where she met Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton when she interviewed to be their housesitter in Gstaad, fell in love and gave birth in Denmark, then later journeyed overland from Europe to Asia with her childhood friend and future husband, Billy. Any one chapter of her life could have been the basis for an entire book!

Anton is an engaging storyteller with an exceptional story -- an unbeatable combination. I highly recommend this memoir to anyone interested in Japan, multicultural families, travel, or just how to live a rich, meaningful life.

[Jon Letman · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a wonderful memoir! If you have any interest in Japan, world travel or cross-cultural/multi-culturalism, this is a delightful read. The author has a clear, easy way of taking her readers by the hand and gently, effortlessly escorting them around the world and through time. From New York City to Haight-Ashbury, rural Vermont, around Europe and overland across Asia, until she and her family finally reach Japan, this book is a geographic, temporal, and philosophical journey. Karen Hill Anton reveals so much of herself and how she sees her fellow humans though her curiosity, compassion, and openness to learning and discovery. This very personal memoir is filled with highly-relatable moments: the desire to explore new places, a longing for family and home, wanting to break stale conventions and misguided barriers, and the desire to find one's own place the the world while staying true to self. At a time when so many of us cannot travel, this book will take you on a journey around the world and into the heart of humanity.

[Ken · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was caught off guard by this surprise gem. I discovered Karen Anton through a YouTube video about one of her daughters. The video showcased what it was like to grow up in a black/jewish household in rural Japan. I got curious about her parents, learned her mom wrote a memoir and here we are. A refreshingly simple and revealing story about a remarkable woman and her family. 4.49 rounded up to 5 stars.

[Pegboard · Rating 5 out of 5]

The View From Breast Pocket Mountain by Karen Hill Anton is told in a way that shows her appreciation for being raised by an aged father. His wisdom, wit, and love gave her and her siblings a stable home. Though some things only a mother understands and not having one in the home did leave a void, visiting her in a mental hospital was worse. This was just the start of an amazing story.

I felt Karen Hill Anton lived a full life. Her journey wasn't easy, but you are transformed into her story as she skillfully tells about her life. Her travel around the world and the people she meets is intriguing and fascinating. It was fun sharing her adventures and seeing the kindness shown to her in the many countries she traveled. I highly recommend this book.

[Liane Wakabayashi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Karen Hill Anton

The View from Breast Pocket Mountain

Karen Hill Anton had for many years one of the most loved, and best read columns in The Japan Times—no small feat for an American woman living off the grid in the lush green tea-growing hills of Hamamatsu, as remote as you can get in the Japanese countryside.

This memoir recounts Anton’s life as a young adventurer in Europe who had her first child in Denmark before hooking up with the love of her life, Billy Anton, the man who shared her values for a healthy lifestyle. The fascinating part of their journey toward Japan, where Billy was offered a place to study at a Zen dojo was how they got there. They purchased a car in Amsterdam and intended to drive — yes, drive! — across the Middle East over unpaved roads and other treacherous challenges such as precipitous mountain highways. I loved this part of the memoir! How kind people were in Afghanistan and Iran reads like a parallel universe from the one we live in now. This was the mid-seventies. Scroll to the year 2020 when this memoir was published, and we are in the hills around the sleepy city of Hamamatsu where Karen, a mother of four grown children and many grandchildren, recounts the courageous and often heartbreaking reality of living far off the grid, where loneliness was her constant companion until she found her writer’s voice and the letters from her appreciative readers started coming. Her practicality and her bravery to share episodes from her daily life made her a household name in Japan. We learn that behind the idyllic life were some very tough times that ripened her voice with wisdom and empathy. This is the first memoir I’ve read in 2021, and what a great way to start it—with Karen’s message to Japan and the world beyond: with no interest in letting others define her through the color of her skin, she sets a towering example of what a world citizen looks like in Japan, and beyond.

[Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

May book club pick:
This book started strong, I was fascinated by the first half of the book. Karen shared her life story including growing up in NYC with her mother in a psychiatric institution; her dad taking care of she and her siblings. She soon left NYC and lived quite the adventure: living in San Francisco for a year, having a baby in Denmark, living with her young daughter in Vermont, then traveling through Europe with her eventual husband before settling in a dojo in Japan. Interestingly, in the exotic locations she went to, she was often the first black person people had seen. After she gets to Japan, the book slows down. She snd her husband have more kids and stay in Japan. The story felt slow and dragged. The writing is beautiful, filled with simple brilliant life truths. She has a gentle, open, perspective worth emanating. The story jumps a bit, but she spans a long lifetime, so, that’s expected. This is recommended for people with an interest in cross cultural acclimation. I am no smarter, maybe a bit kinder, and medium level entertained.

[Megan Alford · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love memoirs, and I particularly enjoyed reading about Karen’s adventures around the globe at a time before technology made it so easy. Having lived as an expat for nearly five years, I loved reading about her adaptation to life in Japan and how she worked to keep in touch with friends around the world over the years. This is a delightful read!

[Powersamurai · Rating 5 out of 5]

If I could, I would give it 10 out of 5. A wonderful journey from start to finish that just keeps you turning those pages. I could've read 1000 pages and still want more. It sure lives up to everyone's praises.

[Michael Rost · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading Karen Hill Anton’s memoir, A View from Breast-Pocket Mountain, has been like taking an arduous, gratifying voyage across three oceans. The first is Karen’s origin story, revealing how she grew up in New York City with a single parent, her father, detailing the remarkable personal challenges she faced up through her teen years. The second is her young adult journeys across Europe and Asia in a VW van with her new husband and toddler daughter toward Japan, replete with surprising cross-cultural encounters and staggering anthropological insights. The third, and by far the most extended, is her settling into Japan as a foreigner, raising four children, much of it on the mythical memoir-namesake Futukoro Yama, which she amorously translates at “Breast-Pocket Mountain.”

Each of these journeys intermingles in the author’s lyrical telling of her life story, and culminates with two final chapters of reflections on the life lessons she learned — and has thankfully passed on to her readers. I will be forever grateful for her dedication in reconstructing this journey with such vividness and her courage in sharing some of her most vulnerable moments.

As a linguist, with a deep interest in cross-cultural communication, I found myself highlighting numerous passages that provided concrete insights about the nature of communication (and mis-communication), the importance of finding common ground, and the transcendent beauty of human generosity and compassion.

In addition to her masterful story-telling, Karen shares some of her photo archives, providing heart-warming snapshots of this remarkable journey.

[RYCJ · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the kind of experience that young ‘compelling’ women take on.

Karen’s ultimate move to Japan began on a casual whim; ‘hey, would you like to go to Japan with me for a year?’ “Sure.” And off she goes, leaving America with her young child, which is hardly where and how her story begins.

Overall, what is most admirable (and unique) about Karen’s experience… aside from her upbringing, and mastering in calligraphy, or leaning into marriage and motherhood (nurturing and raising four bilingual/bicultural children), along with that ROAD TRIP to JAPAN… is the fact that Karen also is a journalist who has written columns for Japanese newspapers about her cross-cultural experiences; remarkable credits alone, before delving into the highlights of a rich ‘must read’ journey.

Personally, I love HOW Karen tells her story. Matter-of-fact. Transparent. Quiet. This is what happened. She didn’t have all the answers, but she knows 'educated from schooled', values independence, critical thinking and intellectual stimulation, electives that didn’t stop her from persevering when circumstances dictated it, nor blight her perspective from sharing a well-rounded diaphanous view of what living in Japan was, and is like. This is standout women's literature for sure! Highly recommended!

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wild and wonderful life - travelling around the world with her young daughter, Hill Anton then created a life for herself in Japan.
Beautiful voice, attention to detail and excellent storytelling, highly recommend it

[Diane Nagatomo · Rating 5 out of 5]

I devoured "The View from Breast Pocket Mountain" so quickly I'll have to go back and read it again. And maybe again after that.

There's so much I want to comment on, but I don't want to give away the little surprises that are peppered throughout the book. I love reading memoirs, and I would say that this one is at the top of the list for me.

[Kate · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a life Karen Hill Anton has lived. The first half of the book focuses on how, after growing up motherless, she leaves NYC and travels all over the world, and my jaw kept dropping at all the places she went and adventures she had in the pre-Internet 1960s and 70s in places like Turkey, Afghanistan, Iran and Denmark--much of it alone and then, later, driving in a small car with her husband and baby.

In the second half, she and her husband move to Japan, reside for a while in a Zen dojo run by a crazy man, live in an extremely rustic rural home and eventually build their own house while raising four kids who are mixed race (African-American and white) and grow up fluent in both Japanese and English. During this time, Karen becomes adept at Japanese calligraphy and writes a column for Japanese newspapers.

There are some fun appearances by famous people, such as Martha Graham, Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton and John Denver. But those alone don't make the book special. What drew me in was her attitude toward life--a free-spiritedness, an adaptability, a willingness to plunge into life essentially fearless.

Favorite quote: "Traveling in the precarious manner I did, you might not know what to expect, but I’d come to expect kindness. People were generally kind. They were generous. They were helpful. I had every reason to believe I would have good experiences because that’s exactly what I was having."

[Jeffrey Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

Karen Hill Anton’s memoirs, The View from Breast Pocket Mountain: A Memoir, is an enlightening, powerful, and moving story of her journey through life. From growing up in New York, traveling and living in Europe, and eventually settling in Japan with her husband, Anton’s memoirs are more than a celebration of life. Indeed, as she embraces new challenges, whether as a young woman finding her way in life, a single mother living and working in Europe, and later, studying and living in a dojo in Japan with her husband, much of what makes her story vivid and poignant for readers is how she learns from all these experiences, and in some ways finds her self. It is just as much a physical journey through life as it is a spiritual one. No matter who we are and where we are from, we can find enlightenment and inspiration from her memoirs, even solace. And in the end, in her celebration of life, we rejoice in her experiences. “At some point in my journey, on a day I never noticed,” writes Anton, “I found that golden thread, a thing of beauty that, though it cannot be seen, connects us all.” Amen, Karen. Thank you for sharing your amazing and rich life.

[Julie Porter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Karen Hill Anton's memoir The View from Breast Pocket Mountain is. beautiful, brilliant, and touching memoir about an African-American woman who searches for her purpose and finds it in Japan.

Anton is like most memoirists, gifted with a good memory and the ability to captivate the senses and Reader's interests through the various scenarios in her colorful life. When she describes her childhood in Harlem with her two siblings and single father, her closeness to her father is sincerely felt. She remembers her institutionalized mother who had amnesia and couldn't always remember her children when they visited her in the institution in which she was placed.
Anton also recalled how her father efficiently performed the duties of mother and father while giving his children basic lessons from home before starting school and giving his kids an appreciation for classical music and art. Because of his experience with a typewriter and having an encyclopedia knowledge, he was often called to draw up petitions and lead organizations. Anton's memories show him as a loving and strong willed man who gave the gift of vast knowledge to his children.

Anton studied Art history and modern dance while living in Greenwich Village. She met figures like Joseph Heller, author of Catch 22. However, her real education came about during her various travels. At 19, she moved to London and hitchhiked through Europe. Travel changes a person's perspective and broadens their personal experiences. A telling moment occurs when Anton returns to New York City. Comparing it to the clean streets of Copenhagen, she asked why they were so dirty and was stunned when she was told that they had always been like this.
In the United States and Europe, Anton became involved with the arts scene befriending various artists and musicians. She also met Don, an immature self-centered man. While Anton was a willing member of the Flower Power generation and was herself pretty free spirited, her relationship with Don showed that even the freest of spirits has their limits. Those limits are reached when someone constantly puts themselves and their partner in debt, when despite threats of homelessness and hunger they still won't at least try to look for work, and when one partner is saddled with a child while the other leaves. Don left Anton pregnant. She gave birth to her daughter, Nanao, in Denmark.

When some memoirists write, they could be considered name droppers. Anton on the other hand could be thought of as a place dropper. Many of her accounts are of her various travels and the experiences that she had are spread throughout the book. Shortly after Nanao was born, she and Anton lived in Switzerland where Anton worked as a cook. They then moved to a college town in Plainfield, Vermont where she worked as an administrative assistant and audited classes.
It was also in Vermont where she deepened her relationship with Billy Anton, a friend that she had known since her high school days in New York City. They remained friends who shared books, ideals, and travels even though they were with other people. After Anton's separation from Don and Billy's divorce, the two became lovers. They eventually married and Billy adopted Nanao as his daughter. Billy led Anton on the adventure of a lifetime by being offered a job to teach at a dojo in Japan. Feeling a bit lost after the death of her father, Anton left her Plainfield job behind and she and Nano packed up and headed for Japan with Billy.

Some of the most interesting passages occur during Anton's road trip to Japan and her and her family's lives in Japan. There are many moments where Anton felt out of place as a black woman in countries where she was in the minority. There is also a suspenseful passage which describes a near assault in the Middle East. The majority of the people that they met on their road trip were helpful and always ready with a bed, food, directions, or a break time to relax and talk while their children played.

Their arrival in Japan was originally fraught with tension as Billy worked as an instructor and Anton as a cook at a dojo that served more or less as a cult. Men, women, and children were separated and Yoshida, the sensei, resorted to physical abuse. The final straw for Anton and her family was during Christmas during a party when they saw a staff member bruised and bloody after an encounter with Yoshida. Worried that could happen to each other or Nanao, Anton and her family decided to leave the dojo. They eventually settled in a rural farming village on Breast Pocket Mountain.
The Anton Family's time on Breast Pocket Mountain has the typical moments of an outsider trying to adjust to a new life by growing used to the customs, learning the language, and getting used to the hard work living on a farm entails. But it is nice to read that Anton and her family finally felt secure and at home with new friends, beautiful landscape, and a place to raise Nanao and their three younger children: Mine, Mario, and Lila. Billy taught English while Anton studied calligraphy and wrote columns for the Japan Times and Chunichi Shimbun. They went through a realistic period of isolation, marriage counseling, and considering separation or divorce. However, they are still married and still live at Breast Pocket Mountain.

The View from Breast Pocket Mountain is a good book that reminds Readers that they can find home anywhere, even if it's far from the country in which they were born.

[Susan Grigsby · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautifully written memoir

A remarkably interesting life made into a very readable book that will hold you in its heart to the end. I found so many parallels to my own life and loved the way Karen moved around her story with ease - as if we were sitting down to a conversation. Her insights into life in Japan are spot on, too. Highly recommended.

[Walt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Backstory is fascinating

I remember reading Ms. Anton's columns when I lived in Japan in the early 90s, but nothing in those columns could have prepared me for how fascinating her life story is. I recommend this people not only wanting to understand Japan but also a world sometimes forgotten.

[Carrie Riseley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. The places and people it explored were varied and ever-changing. The writing was very engaging and I found myself wanting to read more and more. Five stars.

[Don MacLaren · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have read numerous memoirs and autobiographies; "The View From Breast Pocket Mountain" is as good as they come!

Karen Hill Anton has lived a wonderful and courageous life, and we are fortunate she has told us her life stories in this very fine book.

She recounts her many adventures and tragedies, as well as interactions with colorful characters, as she leads us on her life journey from New York City where she was born in 1945, to coming of age experiences in Europe and San Francisco in the 1960s, then on to Asia and ultimately Japan. Anton gives this reader hope that one can succeed by growing through diverse experiences even though the difficulties within those experiences might seem close to insurmountable at times.

There are many people Anton writes about I wish I could have met. First and foremost is her loving, single father, who raised three children on his own while Anton’s mother was institutionalized for mental illness.

Anton’s treks through Europe and later the Middle East and East Asia are told in a gripping, fascinating way. I sometimes wondered if she would ever make it to Japan (even though I knew from The Japan Times columns she wrote that she would) – after all the difficulties she went through, while traveling with her young daughter and her husband-to-be.

After arriving in Japan, Anton begins the psychological trek of adapting to life there – which is no easier than the physical trek of traveling across Eurasia.

For every trial, tribulation, villain or fool in her book, there is at least an equal number of joys, wonders, heroes and heroines. Anton has done such a fine job of living life and articulating it in her book that I consider her one of the best role models I have come across in fiction, non-fiction or life itself.

Japan is lucky to have someone as talented as Anton as one of its residents, and I am lucky to have read her book!

[Leanne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Longtime Japan residents will already know the author from her wonderful Crossing Cultures column that ran for years in the Japan Times. Like a lot of people maybe, I had no idea of her life before coming to Japan-- wow, she has had an exciting and adventurous life. From her younger years in New York City, where she was raised by a magnificent father who stepped up when her mother was hospitalized long-term for mental illness to her traveling days in Europe. I had no idea that she came to Japan with her then boyfriend and later husband because of his interest in Japanese martial arts and that, falling in love with the country, they decided to stay. I knew she was an accomplished calligrapher, but did not know about her background in dance.

She is a talented and incredibly wise human being--who stepped up to every challenge that life threw at her. I felt like part of her wisdom was her openness to life and chance encounters, of being able to go with the flow, and to just go for it. This is perhaps what moved me most about this book. Beautiful and talented, she seemed to have always lived big.

I bought the book as soon as it came up but couldn't get to it because of reading for classes I was taking. When I finally picked up her book, I found it hard to put down. The writing is classic--it doesn't begin at a climactic point and the work in scenes but rather the book unfolds in a linear way. Beautifully written, I found myself really moved by the end.

I am halfway through her novel now.

[Wendy Beckman · Rating 4 out of 5]

The View From Breast Pocket Mountain by Karen Hill Anton is about an African American woman's experiences in the United States and travelling abroad, both alone and with others. Anton ends up settling down in Japan, where she has now lived for more than 50 years. She concludes at the end that culture is learned, nationality is what's on your passport, and that as an American abroad, no one knows who she is -- definitely not by the color of her skin.

Anton is a great writer with interesting insights. Her experiences are very interesting, especially when I read them as someone who would never do the things she's done. At times, the adventures get tedious, though, as if we were just reading several decades worth of her diaries. Other times she does a lot of name-dropping -- but that's because she has the names to drop. For example, John Denver was once a house guest of hers in Japan, and she has the pictures to prove it!

This book would be of interest to women who have travelled or who want to travel, as well as those who have had to learn how to function in a different culture from the one they grew up in.

[Margaret Agard]

This memoir is of living the life of the road not normally taken She backpacked and traveled overseas throughout the late 60's and 70's. And then moved permanently to japan. the subject immediately caught my attention for how many of us wish we'd had the courage.
The author, Karen Anton, chose to present her story chronologically. She shares with us her first early losses hinting at future losses. She lets us know that at that time she learned to stuff her emotions and keep them to herself, or worse, not to feel them at all. Knowing that is key if you read this.
Often this memoir read like a simple timeline. She did this, she did that, she met this famous or not so famous person. As interesting as that was, the meat of her life, her emotions and her changing attitudes were seldom shared. When she did have the courage to share those times, her writing gripped me and held my interest. I'm glad I continued through the not-so-gripping sections. Those few times were worth the wait.
I applaud her courage at sharing her inner life with us. As memoir readers we probably come across as voyeurs. And yet I hope as compassionate ones.
Karen Anton, thank you for a trip through a not-so-common life.

[Josanna Berkow · Rating 5 out of 5]

Young African-American single Mom and White macrobiotic cook travel overland for a year through Eurasia to settle in a rustic farmhouse on top of a Japanese mountaintop in the early 1970’s. Really? And, this is just the beginning of the story!

Karen Anton Hill explores significant differences in race, gender, and culture with an open mind and an open heart in her compelling memoir, The View From Breast Pocket Mountain. Ms. Hill has lived in Japan for over four decades where she created a large, loving family and home, raised four cross-cultural children, penned a popular Japanese Newspaper column, taught modern dance, and attained second degree mastery in Japanese calligraphy among many other accomplishments. Her account of family tragedy, joy and success, is compelling and the writing propulsive. You won’t want to put the book down.

[Jon · Rating 5 out of 5]

All memoirs are unique, but some are more unique than others. Karen Hill Anton's new book, "The View From Breast Pocket Mountain, is just such a memoir. In her book Anton engagingly recounts a life that began in 1940s New York City, where she was raised in a motherless household along with a brother and sister. Her father, an educated man who worked as a tailor to care for the family, imparted to his daughter a love of books and the written word, a love she would nurture for life. Curious to see the world, soon after high school, despite modest means, she headed to Europe. Over the next decade she lived in London, Vermont, and Denmark, where she lived in a castle and gave birth to a daughter. Eventually she would embark on a one year odyssey across Europe and Asia, in a rusted out Volkswagen, with her daughter and future husband. Arriving in Japan in 1975, the young family eschewed big city life and settled in a small town in mountainous rural Japan. They had three more children, and together created a family life in a place and culture that could not have been more different than life in their native New York. Karen, returning to her childhood love of words, would go on to share her family's experiences and keen observations about bicultural life in rural Japan as a longtime popular columnist for Japan's national newspapers, and now, in her new memoir, she shares her fascinating and singular life with the world.

[Valery · Rating 5 out of 5]

The View From Breast Pocket Mountain: A Memoir by Karen Hill Anton beautifully brings to life the author's most interesting and sometimes mundane life experiences. From growing up poor to finally settling in Japan, this memoir captures the essence of the author in an illuminating and lyrical way. The power of her language simply rolls off the page and pulls you in. Each descriptive experience resonates on a seemingly personal level with the reader. This is a fascinating look at a brave woman's life, one lived without reservation, and a lot of guts and determination. By comparison, you might feel like you haven't experienced much in your life; but take some time and live vicariously through Anton as she recounts her vivid experiences and life events. Highly recommend.

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sometime the road less traveled will bring us to the most unexpected places. In this touching memoir, we see the life of the author, from a young girl growing up in New York, to her worldly travels all throughout Europe, the Middle East and Asia before settling in Japan. The honesty that she writes with was refreshing. She describes her encounters with new societies and locals, both positive and negative encounters which many books can leave out. I enjoyed the unique perspective she brings and this book renewed my desire to travel to Japan and experience the lifestyle myself.

[Sara · Rating 3 out of 5]

I remember reading Anton's columns in the Japan Times years ago, so I was interested in reading her memoir. She has had a fascinating life both in Japan and elsewhere. It is a fairly linear read until she arrives in Japan and then it becomes a little disjointed. I wish she'd gone deeper into some of her issues and issues in Japan, but I think she wanted to cover everything in one book here. I'd love to see her publish a collection of essays.

[Sangita · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thoroughly enjoyed her journey. Astounded by her courage and resilience. There were several points where I thought her life greatly resembled “Forest Gump”—always coming across famous people at unexpected places. I never read her Japan Times columns, but I could relate to most of the things she experienced in Japan as a mother trying to raise her children in a foreign land—even though I came to Japan 25 years later. A good read for all “gaijin” mothers and fathers.

[AL · Rating 1 out of 5]

It is so poorly written I could not make it through a few pages. It is about a black woman being black, nothing else. She's black in the US then she goes be black in Europe etc. It was too painfully boring to read, but I still skipped and skimmed for a bit to see if there was anything worth my time and there absolutely wasn't.

This is a boring list of things that happened to a black woman with no explanation as to why or any insight as far as I could tell, but it doesn't matter because the whole and sole entire selling point of this mess is that the writer is black. That is it. As evidenced by the reviews, this is a book praised by politically correct white women who wouldn't have looked at a similar atrocity twice if it were written by a white person. It also gets the praise of Japanophile losers who think even dried turds from Japan are the most amazing thing ever.

The only reason I even got hold of this thing is I mentioned to colleagues I haven't been able to find a single even half decent modern book by foreigners in Japan. Two of them praised this mess as the best thing ever. Though I was nearly sure they were wrong, I gave them the benefit of the doubt: both happen to be black Americans in Japan who think black Americans are oh-so-special or something. I was right and this was a waste of my time.

The only positive aspect of this book is that it is no longer in print so that it will not be inadvertently inflicted on an unsuspecting poor sod.

[John Spiri · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm delighted that I took the plunge to read The View from Breast Pocket Mountain. It's an extraordinary memoir of travel, culture, and life. Since the author is my Facebook friend (who I have never met), I had read about the book, all praise, but had to wonder to what degree people were plugging for a friend. The answer is, not at all. Karen's wonderful storytelling skills capture the twists and turns of a life lived well and fully (with undoubtedly more many tales to come!).